Bill Clinton: Obama should act more forcefully to support anti-Assad rebels

Bill Clinton told Sen. John McCain he agrees that President Barack Obama should act more forcefully to support anti-Assad rebels in Syria, saying the American public elects presidents and members of Congress “to see down the road” and “to win'', according a report on the Politico website.

At another point during a closed-press event Tuesday, Clinton implied that Obama or any president risks looking like “a total fool” if they listen too closely to opinion polls and act too cautiously. He used his own decisions on Kosovo and Bosnia as a point of reference.

 The former president also said commanders-in-chief should avoid over-interpreting public opinion polls about whether the United States should get involved in crises overseas.

 His remarks came during a question-and-answer session with McCain, who has been among Obama’s harshest critics over what he calls a failure to take “decisive” action in Syria. Obama has come under growing pressure to step up American intervention by sending military and other assistance to the rebels.

“Some people say, ‘Okay, see what a big mess it is? Stay out!’ I think that’s a big mistake. I agree with you about this,” Clinton told McCain during an event for the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Manhattan Tuesday night. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t overcommit — like, as long as you don’t make an improvident commitment.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The remark from Clinton came as McCain, who recently took a trip to Syria and met with moderate rebel commanders, has ratcheted up his criticism that Obama has been feckless in the face of growing strength by President Bashar Assad in the civil war. McCain gave an address after the trip about the growing problems in the Middle East, saying the U.S. needs to seize the moment.

“Nobody is asking for American soldiers in Syria,” Clinton said. “The only question is now that the Russians, the Iranians and the Hezbollah are in there head over heels, 90 miles to nothing, should we try to do something to try to slow their gains and rebalance the power so that these rebel groups have a decent chance, if they’re supported by a majority of the people, to prevail?”

 The event was closed to the press, but POLITICO listened to audio of portions of it recorded by an attendee. Clinton, whose wife stepped down as Obama’s Secretary of State at the end of January, has largely stayed away from offering foreign policy views while Hillary Clinton was serving in the president’s administration.

She had supported a plan that then-CIA head Gen. David Petraeus drew up to arm a vetted group of rebels, but it was put aside after his extra-marital affair scandal and her head injury following a severe virus.